Halo 3 ODST: Compelling Story With Intense Visuals

Game Review | nawed | September 25, 2009 at 1:23 pm

halo odst 300x173 Halo 3 ODST: Compelling Story With Intense Visuals

The newest entry from Microsoft’s biggest gaming franchise serves as a standalone expansion pack for “Halo 3,” the ODSTs, which stands for the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, are literally dropped into New Mombasa to protect the Earth from the alien Covenant that invades in the year 2552.

Offering both a new campaign and new multiplayer mode, ODST has earned its right to bear a $60 price tag. At the start of the game, the Rookie and his squad are on a spaceship in orbit around a besieged Earth. The Covenant, a collection of alien races bent on the extermination of all mankind, has taken control of the city of New Mombassa and it’s up to the squad to reclaim it.

ODST’s takeaway sounds simple enough: Think Call of Duty lite (or as some have quipped, Halo of Duty) with a sci-fi slant and battles channeled via flashbacks. As you pick through the rubble for signs of your teammates, you’ll find artifacts that trigger throwback sequences–you play through these as each respective team member, experiencing their “personal” stories firsthand.

Though the story is interesting and unfolds along a fractured timeline a nice touch the cut screens are a step back from other games in this series.